I have a favorite one thatI believe is made by OXO. Two toothed openings, one large and one smaller, coated non slip type handles, will crack any but the smallest nuts with little effort. Probably available at any store that has an OXO kitchen "tools" display for no more than $5 to $6.

On the other hand, it's hard to beat a small hammer and a sturdy surface for cracking walnuts.

Are the walnuts English or black walnuts?

I just pinned this one as a possible shower gift. You can get the cracker separately (i.e., without the bowl). I've never used it, but it says in the reviews that it cracks hard shelled nuts easily and is good for people with arthritis and for children.

I'm used to the kind of nutcracker you pictured, and used to have the job of cracking bags of walnuts from a friend's tree, which is a terrible job if you're not a tween. The picks that come with that nutcracker (or can do) are great for getting the bits out of the walnuts and pecans. If you don't have picks, you can get them separately too. :)

We have one similar to this, but instead of a lever, you turn the screw until the nut cracks. Our parents had pecan orchards, and we used to get tons of pecans every year, and this was the best way to crack them. It also works great on walnuts and even Brazil nuts.

This is another good pecan cracker, but may not be best for walnuts.

This one would work too, and looks a lot like what we have.

I have a huge (85' tall) butternut nut (White walnut) tree in the garden. Each year it drops a ton of nuts. The nuts are extremely difficult to crack. So I just compost the nuts. Some day I will find a way to crack them easily.

A very delicious and healthy nut, better than walnut:

"---- The butternut is an oily and rich nut. Though it has always been popularly eaten on its own, the butternut was also prepared a variety of ways by the American Indians. The Iroquis had some of the most varied and interesting uses for the nut. The fresh nuts were crushed and boiled and served as either baby food or a drink (Moerman). The crushed nuts were also used for breads, puddings, and sauces as well as mixed in to dishes such as mashed potatoes. The oils of the nuts were also used to flavor dishes (Erichsen-Brown). -----"

My tree is a very rare tree. Most of the butternut tree are gone because of fungal infections.

dcarch

FWIW, I learned a neat trick on Youtube that's practically free and works well with extra hard-shelled nuts.

Slice a foam pool noodle (the kind with a hole in the center) in a thickness equal to the size of the nuts you're cracking, place the nut in the noodle's hole on a hard surface and use a hammer to strike the nut. The foam circle will hold the nut in place and protect your fingers.

I use it on my macadamia nuts - which are super hard and almost perfect spheres. It also works with hickory nuts, and I'm assuming any other type of hard-shelled nut.

This one! When we got it my then 4 year old could crack walnuts. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N03605P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use a Cracker Jack
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